House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio strides from the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, after the Republican-controlled House passed legislation approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The bill’s passage now sets the stage for a showdown in the Senate. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON — Girding for battle with a Republican Congress over environmental policy, President Barack Obama is signaling that he is likely to veto a bill authorizing the Keystone XL oil pipeline just as momentum for the project builds on Capitol Hill.

Individuals familiar with the administration’s thinking say Obama is leaning against approving the massive pipeline. And in a news conference Friday in Burma, the president rejected two of the main arguments made by pipeline proponents, saying he had “to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States, or is somehow lowering gas prices.”

“It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else,” he said. “That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.”

On Friday, the House authorized construction of the pipeline by a decisive vote of 252-161. Senate Democrats have agreed to vote on the project Tuesday in an effort to boost the fortunes of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who faces a Dec. 6 runoff against the author of the House companion bill, Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

The White House has indicated it is prepared to reject the House bill, though it has not issued a formal veto threat. Barring an extraordinary legislative maneuver forcing his hand in the next Congress, Obama is likely to reject a final permit when the matter comes before him, according to the people with knowledge of White House decision-making.

Though a multi-step, multi-agency process must still take place before the State Department recommends whether a permit should be granted, the most important process is happening — as one administration official put it — in Obama’s head.

In public, the president and his aides have said that they will wait for the State Department review, which has been suspended until Nebraska’s Supreme Court rules whether the pipeline’s route through that state was properly approved. That decision could come out any day; once it does, several agencies will have a chance to comment on whether the project serves the national interest. Secretary of State John Kerry can then issue a final determination, which would be subject to presidential approval.

In private discussions, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough has indicated Obama is well aware that approving the pipeline would infuriate environmentalists, who not only lent major support to Democrats in the recent election but will serve as important allies in legislative battles as well as the 2016 presidential race.

Republicans have identified Keystone XL as one of their top legislative priorities, and it enjoys the support of several major business groups along with the oil industry.

Russ Girling, chief executive of the pipeline sponsor Trans-Canada, issued a statement on Nov. 5 saying that the Keystone XL “has always enjoyed bipartisan support and is a great example of an issue where both parties can work together to create jobs and enhance energy security for the United States.”

Some groups, including the Laborers’ International Union of North America and the International Union of Operating Engineers, have endorsed the project as a means of generating high-paying, short-term construction jobs. But environmentalists (and other unions) have framed the pipeline as a referendum on the president’s commitment to addressing climate change.

Environmentalists say the pipeline is especially harmful because it lowers transportation costs and thus provides more incentive for the development of Alberta’s oil sands. Extracting a thick bitumen from those sands requires a lot of energy because the sands must be heated.

In June 2013, Obama said he would reject the project if it would “significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution,” a pledge he repeated again last week at a news conference after the midterm elections. Kerry has made fighting global warming a hallmark of his career.

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